External Quality Assurance Schemes for Reproductive Medicine

Privacy policy

The objective of this policy is to provide a code of conduct in relation to the use of information on individuals, which may be collected, stored, and used by EQASRM.

Personal Information shall be protected.

This Policy, aligns with the ten National Privacy Principles as scheduled in the Privacy Amendment Act (Act No. 155 of 2000) - www.privacy.gov.au

1. Collection of Personal Information

EQASRM shall not collect personal information on any individual, unless that information is necessary to perform our normal business functions and activities.

EQASRM shall collect information only by lawful and unobtrusive means.

Any individual from whom personal information is collected, shall at the time of collection, be made aware that the information is available to them and be provided with contact details to gain access to their personal information.

2. Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

EQASRM shall not use or disclose personal information for any other purpose than the primary purpose for which it was collected unless specific consent is given for such use.

Data supplied to EQASRM in the form of results may be used by EQASRM for research and/or publication purposes whilst maintaining the identity of participating labs confidential.

3. Data Quality

EQASRM shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information held is accurate and up-to-date.

EQASRM shall take all steps to destroy any personal information no longer required for the purpose it was originally collected.

5. Openness

EQASRM shall outline in this policy document, or other documents as required, our clearly expressed policy and procedures on the collection, storage and use of personal information.

On request from an individual, EQASRM shall take all reasonable steps to generally inform that person what sort of personal information EQASRM holds, and for what purpose the information may be used or disclosed.

6. Access and Correction of Information

EQASRM shall take all reasonable steps to provide access from individuals to their personal information on request so as to allow for requested changes to be made to that information if the information is inaccurate or incomplete.

7. Identifiers

EQASRM shall not adopt any identifiers used by a commonwealth agency (eg. tax file numbers, ABN's, license numbers) for an individual.

EQASRM shall adopt its own identifier for individuals unless the individual has opted to not be identified.

Note: Indentifier is defined as a number assigned to an individual by an organization. It is not an individual's name or ABN as defined in the new tax system.

8. Anonymity

EQASRM shall ensure individuals the option to interact anonymously.

9. Transborder flow of data

Any personal information shall only be transferred to foreign countries in circumstances where and the information will have appropriate privacy protection.

10. Sensitive information

Sensitive information shall not be collected without the consent of the individual.

Note: Sensitive information is information about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, political beliefs, membership to political parties, union or professional associations, sexual preferences, health matters or criminal record.